1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to ductworks designed to remove noxious and flammable vapors and gases from industrial plants and, more particularly, to an improved sprinkler connection to a scrubber duct.
2. The Prior Art
Industrial plants generate unwanted and undesirable byproducts, including noxious and flammable vapors and gases. These noxious and flammable vapors and gases must be removed from the premises preferably at the rate that they are generated. Ductworks operated at negative pressures are designed to do so. They are better known as scrubber ducts. Since scrubber ducts frequently carry vapors and gases which are pyrophoric and highly volatile, they are required to be outfitted with sprinklers inside the ducts. Water is channeled to each of the sprinklers via hard pipes entering into the ducts, right up to the sprinkler heads. These sprinkler heads must be inspected regularly to assure the operational integrity of the system. Sprinklers found defective must be replaced. The installation, the inspection and the replacement of each of the sprinklers requires the provision of a second port, the access port, adjacent each and every one of the sprinkler heads mounted at intervals in the ducts. The ducts are tubular, with the sprinkler heads mounted from the top. The access ports preferably are provided at a 45.degree. angle thereto. In order to enable an operator to install, to inspect, and if need be, to replace a defective sprinkler head, the access ports must each be at least six inches in diameter. The opening of even one of these six inch access ports, however, reduces the negative pressure within the duct to below that required to keep the system operational. Consequently, the entire duct system must be shut down during the periodic inspection procedure and remain shut down until the last sprinkler head in the duct system has been inspected and, if need be, replaced. And of course, with the entire scrubber duct system shut down, the particular industrial process served by that process also had to be shut down, and remain shut down until the inspection of the ducts system has been completed and rendered operational once again.
Such periodic inspections, therefore, are very costly. Not only are the manual inspections labor intensive, but in requiring system shut-downs, have the potential to wreak havoc with the efficient operation of the entire plant served by the system. An inspection procedure allowing for the continued operation of the manufacturing process during the scrubber duct's inspection, accordingly, has been a coveted goal for some time.